Injury expert Will Carroll immediately tweeted a dark diagnosis for Peavy. In a video released Wednesday afternoon, Carroll pointed to Oakland starter Ben Sheets, St. Louis starter Brad Penny and Boston ace Josh Beckett as injury comps for Peavy, but in each case, the pitchers merely had to recover from strains, not full tears.

The question now becomes whether or not Peavy can come back at all. There are no comparables for this. Again, I went to my doctors and therapists, who think that he can come back. “It’s not a cuff,” said one ortho, “and putting the muscle back in place isn’t difficult. It’s an anchor. It’s not like there’s multiple structures or ways to do it really.” A physical therapist put it more succinctly: “If a nail comes out of your wall, you hammer it back in place. That’s all this is.” We’ve seen players come back from detached muscles before.